PORT ANGELES — Kyle Cronk is leaving for a position in Olympia after six years as the Olympic Peninsula YMCA chief executive officer, the nonprofit organization announced Wednesday.
Cronk’s final day on the North Olympic Peninsula will be Nov. 27 — long enough, he said, to allow him to oversee work on a proposal that the YMCA assume management of the financially troubled Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center (SARC).
Cronk, 47, has accepted a position as president and CEO of South Sound YMCA of Olympia, which serves Thurston, Mason and Lewis counties.
Len Borchers, 68, has been named acting director to serve when Cronk has left.
Borchers has served as the Olympic Peninsula YMCA finance director for the past 10 years and will be working side by side with Cronk during the transition period.
The Olympic Peninsula YMCA has branches in Port Angeles and Port Townsend.
It could expand into the Sequim area in the near future in partnership with SARC, an exercise facility at 610 N. Fifth Ave. that includes the city’s only public pool.
The SARC board has said the facility will close by September 2016 because of a lack of funds.
A $36,000 market feasibility study is being conducted through Saturday to gauge community interest in YMCA’s management proposal.
The city of Sequim, the YMCA, SARC, Clallam County, Olympic Medical Center and private donors are providing money for the survey.
“I am not leaving until the end of [November], so looking at that data — we will put together an operating pro forma [business plan], and if it makes sense to move forward, then we will put a proposal in front of the SARC commissioners to look at operating SARC as a YMCA,” Cronk said.
If the two entities proceed with such a partnership, Borchers said he is well-prepared to see that through.
“I have had several different management roles in the past and many times come into a situation where you’ve got to figure out what is going on and get everybody on the same team going the same direction,” he said.
Borchers, a native of Portland, Ore., graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
He lives in Port Angeles with his wife, Christine, and has three adult children.
He moved here in 1985.
“I am just really excited about” taking the reins, Borchers said.
“I love the ‘Y.’ I have loved my time here, and we have got some exciting projects in the works.”
Cronk, who has worked for YMCA since 1987, will assume his new role in Olympia on Nov. 30.
“It was time for our family to look for a different community, and we are excited about moving down to Olympia,” Cronk said.
He will succeed Mike West, who announced his retirement earlier this year after working for YMCA in Olympia for the past 34 years.
During Cronk’s tenure at the Olympic Peninsula YMCA, the organization has expanded youth development programs, provided free memberships for all seventh-graders, launched two small businesses and supported a grass-roots, collective-impact initiative focused on community livability, according to the news release issued Wednesday.
Cronk’s wife, Megan, and sons, Coen, 10, and Brody, 8, will remain in Port Angeles through June so the boys can finish out the school year at Franklin Elementary School, Cronk said.
Cronk said leaving the Peninsula was an “incredibly difficult” decision to make.
“We have a lot of friends here. We have a lot of great professional relationships here,” he said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
